Page 103 of Eternal Ruin

Maybe if they kissed, she could think about killing him again.

She blamed him for this. His need was bleeding into her, turning her ravenous, and if they had to devour one another, so be it.

The crushed plastic bag fell to the floor, leaving their hands intertwined. She swallowed, pressing her palm against his. His fingers were longer, his nails sharp and blackened at the tips. Her head tilted up to see the five holes in the wall from his claws. For a moment, she thought about how they would feel against something soft.

“What would I see if you bit my finger?” she asked.

His black eyes kept burning, an oil spill lit aflame. “Kindness.”

“Really?”

She’d expected something wicked. They had delved into worse memories—sin, violence, desire. Yet a biting urge rushed through her.

To peer into his heart. She wanted nothing more than to glimpse his kindness. A piece of light out of this darkness they always seemed to slip into.

She lifted her hand to his full mouth. Permission to explore more.

Eyes locked on hers, he kissed her thumb. His fang prodding.

He hesitated, reading her intention.

Softly, he punctured the pad of her thumb. She winced as a bubble of blood sprouted.

“Don’t judge me, yené Roana.” He pulled back to smile a little. “I don’t know what you might find in there.”

The moment his tongue snaked out and lapped at the drop, she gasped.

Her vision swirled into several hues of color, a warm rush coursing through her veins as she emerged elsewhere.

It was a memory from last semester. The first time Susenyos, instead of Etete, lit the fireplace.

He worked the logs of the fireplace as Kidan opened the door. Her nose was tinged red from Uxlay’s unrelenting wind, and she would sniffle all night if she didn’t warm quickly. He smiled inwardly as she kicked off her boots and scarf and settled beside him reluctantly.

He never allowed candles in Adane House. Could hardly stand this gilded fireplace. Except Etete kept lighting it. Without it, she would shiver at night and cough into her scarf. Yet every open flame drowned his mind with terror, the scream of his people crackling as they vanished from this world one by one.

The Great San Er Fire played in his visions, torturing him with guilt.

During their first meeting, walking the campus grounds on that foggy morning, he’d stumbled upon Kidan warming her hands by a garden fire.

She had chosen to settle by the only warm thing in this dead world, and he’d seen the flames melting into her brown skin as something other than a terrifying end.

A beginning.

The next day, Susenyos lit the fireplace by himself and sat before it.

If he hoped to draw her out of her room, it would be with fire. Though she didn’t come that first day or the next.

Still, he braved the sight of the flames, pushed back against the force of nature that had robbed him of all peace. Hoping.

It wouldn’t be until weeks later she’d tolerate sitting next to him. This time warming her hands next to his.

It was too short, the lull back to the present world calling her. Kidan fought to stay, linger in this new revelation, but the image of Susenyos and his crackling fire faded away.

They were breathing in unison when he stopped drinking. Eyes locked on one another.

She found it difficult to look away from him.

“The fireplace. You kept lighting it… for me? Even when you hated me?”